In the assembly of many electronic components, it is necessary to mount sockets on a base, such as a printed circuit board. A socket of this type includes a housing having a series of apertures opening on one face and a series of bendable pins extending from the opposite face. To mount the socket on the board, the pins are inserted into correspondingly sized and arranged holes in the board. The socket is attached to the board, for example, by bending the pins and/or soldering the pins to the board. With the socket mounted in this fashion, the apertures of the socket are exposed and can receive another electronic element, such as a dual in-line package. The socket electrically and mechanically couples the dual in-line package to other circuit elements.
Heretofore, the task of socket insertion has been accomplished manually. Because the pins of the socket and the holes in the board are small, the insertion process is difficult and time consuming. Consequently, carrying out this task manually increases the labor cost.
Equipment is available for inserting the dual in-line packages into the sockets. Such equipment uses a vacuum to hold the dual in-line package during insertion. However, vacuum holding techniques are not suited for use with sockets because the apertures of the sockets are air-pervious, and accordingly, it is difficult or impossible to obtain sufficient differential pressure across the socket.